ut again; but at a warning look from Fred
he restrained himself.

"Deerfoot loves the Hunters of the Ozark; he has promised to make them a
visit; he will do so with his friends that he has found in the woods,
and who forget to keep their guns loaded."

"No use!" exclaimed Terry, bounding in the air, striking his heels
together, and flinging his hat aloft with a loud whoop; "I must give
gintle exprission to me emotions, even though it makes a war with
England."

The others showed no objection to this harmless ebullition, and he
speedily became quiet again.

Had Fred Linden been intimately acquainted with Deerfoot, he would have
noticed that he was not entirely at ease. Now and then he darted glances
about him, as though he half expected the appearance of some unwelcome
person. The glances were so quick and furtive that neither Fred nor
Terry noticed them.

"Deerfoot," said Fred, the three still standing; "we have concluded that
there isn't a better place along the trail for a camp."

To the surprise of the boys, he shook his head in dissent.

"Why, this is where father and the rest spent the night when they last
went this way."

He nodded to signify that he agreed with them.

"There were three of them, and they had their horses, that could not be
well hid; when my brothers go into camp for the night, they should take
a place where all who went by would not see them."

It struck the others as curious that the Shawanoe should talk in that
fashion, when they could not see any cause for alarm; but they had
enough faith in him to accept his judgment on such an important matter.
He added:

"Come with Deerfoot and he will show his brothers where they may slumber
in peace."

Without any more explanation the Shawanoe moved down the bank of the
brook, following a course parallel to the flow of the water, the other
two keeping at his heels. He did not look around until he had gone more
than a hundred yards. Then it was that the little party found itself in
a rocky section, with a rough cavern on their right--that is, the
bowlders and rocks were jumbled together in such a fashion that there
was some resemblance to a cave. The chief merit of the place, however,
was the privacy that it afforded, rather than the strength as a means of
defense against an enemy.

"This suits very well," said Fred, taking in all the points at a glance;
"here is a rocky bed on which we can start a fire, and the other rocks
and bowlders wi